My First Step into the Scorpion’s Lair at D-Spot, Where the Hottest Wings Await

Two weeks ago, I took the first steps into a blaze of glory – not on a bloody battlefield, or in the depths of a deranged human’s psyche, but at an Oakdale wing joint called D-Spot. They’ve got some hot-ass wings, you see. The crew at D-Spot insists their back page menu isn’t meant as a challenge, and there’s no princess being held in another castle, but their heat intensifies by level and each “level” has a “key” flavor you must stomp to unlock the next.

My story begins with El Loco. Made with Bhut Jolokia peppers and clocking in at 1.4 million Scoville units, El Loco is Level 1.

“You’re a brave man,” said the server as he set the basket before me. When the basket landed on the table, a burst of smoke rushed into the air. Imagine a portal to Hell opening, but only seeing a plate of wings cross through and out. I muttered a shaken curse. This is going to hurt, isn’t it?Before I could give myself time to back out, I snatched up the only drum and tore the meat off in one mighty bite.

It hit me like Mickey would’ve in Snatch. The sauce dug into my lips. Pepper seeds hit the back of my throat and disrupted my breathing pattern. Liquids of all manner oozed from the spouts of my face. Hiccups forceful enough to jerk my whole body set in. My fingerprints felt like they were being burnt off MIB-style. I lifted the second one delicately, gripping the endmost molecules with the tippiest tips of my fingers. My teeth flailed at the meat the way a falling man tries to grab hold of a rope.

I grabbed number three, not in the fashion one typically picks up a device of self-torture, but with the urgency of a cartoon hero holding a bomb. I bit the meat off one side, swung it around, bit from the other side, pushed the middle meat out with my right index and guided it into my mouth. I dropped number three like a runner cashing a water cup and reached for number four.

Number four was the least intimate. Most of my touch points had been scorched numb by now, and this was merely another layer of sauce and a few more seeds. I systematically nibbled the meat off, set it down, saw I missed a sliver, picked it back up, snipped it off, and set it back down.

That’s how I conquered El Loco.

El Loco

Of course water didn’t work, so I giant-stepped over to the counter and virtually threw my credit card at the cashier. My heartbeat and lung capacity were beginning to normalize, but my mouth was like the steel of my parent’s fireplace when it’s running hot – I mean mid-January, keep that thing at full blast hot.

“Do you guys have milk?” I asked. The tears had dried to my face and the hiccups had slowed. I may or may not have had a crusted-snot mustache. I’d rather not dwell on that. The cashier returned with a bottle of organic green tea, and The Man With His Face On the Wall:

Pepper Lord Darin Koch himself.

We shook hands and he congratulated me, but wasted no breath before showing me the flavors I was in for next. That’s the message he conveyed: Flavors. Darin cares about the flavors a great deal, to the point I would’ve been ashamed to admit I’d crazily blitzed El Loco without noticing them.

He gave me another green tea, compliments of the house. They help your metabolism, he says, help you sweat out the heat faster, make it easier for you to enjoy the flavors. It’s a talent I’ll need to master, and pronto: I’m going after every super-hot wing in the castle,* all the up to the 4.5M-unit Seppuku and the game’s final gate-keeper, Seizonsha.

“If you eat Seizonsha, you can count on 3-4 days without solid food,” said Koch. “Some people eat them and they’re knocked out of work for three days.” Fun!

I stayed up all night after El Loco with heartburn, and my first … sitting on the … in the morning at work … very scorchy, if you know what I mean. It’s going to take months but I shall hiccup, cry, snot, pant, quiver, sweat, and tea-guzzle my way to Seizonsha before 2014 expires. That’s my mission.

To quote that Christopher Walken line I love so much, “It’s too late to be scared. It’s time to kill!” I’ve reached through the fire once already. I know exactly what I’m in for now.

Frank Haataja is the editor of The Minnesota Skinny. Frank is a graduate of UW-Superior's journalism program (back when it had one). Over his 11 years in newsrooms, he has won awards from the Minnesota Newspaper Association and Wisconsin Newspaper Association. The Minnesota Skinny has enabled his penchant for overeating, which he now refers to as "research."